Living In Drought: Wonderful Post from Greywater Actionista Christina Bertea on Drought Optimism

Greywater actionista flowing into the conversation here. Firstly I would like to invoke the memory of very wet Springs in the past--torrential downpours in April--when it seemed the winter was already over. So we don't know for sure the whole story. Not to say we shouldn't be totally conscious and reverent and infinitely grateful in our water use, every single minute of every single day, regardless of an apparent crisis.

But let's not give up and visualize the worst, if there is even the slightest possibility that our very own thoughts and consciousness might play a role in whether or not we get some rain this winter/spring. It is a possibility that fascinates me--what role do we play as human beings in whether there is --weather (that we want). Collectively, how can we merge our energies and intentions to call out for the water needed by all life?

I love to read accounts about rainmakers--there is the famous taoist story, and a recent biography of Rolling Thunder by Stanley Krippner, and Eliot Cowan's experiences recounted in Plant Spirit Medicine. We live in an inspirited natural world that responds to relationship--at least that has been the experience of traditional peoples for millenia, who allowed for that reality.

I remember having the great good fortune to be present at a snake dance at Hopi many many (many) years ago. To be in the energy field of the drone of the rattles, the entrancing vision of the rattlesnakes dangling from the dancer's mouths while the co-dancer held the snake's attention with a feather as they all moved rhythmically around --and round-- and round-- the plaza--was to be immersed in an ancient ineffably profound technology for maintaining harmony with the elements. Peoples who live agriculturally in a desert have had to cultivate a delicate and very humble relationship with the powers that confer life.

And so I would invite all of us to pray for rain, dance for rain, make altars or paintings or music, or whatever our own most private intimate way of reaching out to the great Mystery is-- who knows, if we act as if the ThunderBeings can hear us, perhaps they will!